Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." Matthew 8:19-22
On the face of it, Jesus' response to both potential disciples seems contradictory and rude. He repels one candidate and rebukes another. Only Jesus knows each heart and discerns each family situation. Only he knows exactly who is leaning on excuses and who is over-eager for the wrong reasons. This short vignette is the weaving together of two stories to show followers of Jesus how difficult it can be. We in the church often lower the bar to make it easier for people to get into the faith. To be sure, Jesus removed the need for any credentials or qualifications: there are no exclusions of ethnicity, intellect, status, or religious pedigree. But Jesus continually raises the bar of commitment. He requires nothing less than total concentration and passion.
The "teacher" thought having Jesus as his Sage and Rabbi would add to his resume. "I studied under Professor so and so" is the speech of certain followers. "I did my Ph.D. work with this University under this distinguished professor." The hidden motivation lurking beneath the surface is prestige, ambition, or career advancement. Jesus bluntly promises him, "it will cost you security and reputation to follow me. You'll be a drifter and a misfit." The Son of Man is never fully embraced by the world; nobody is wining and dining him. He is a foreigner to the world's measurements of success. The Son of Man's home is in his heavenly father's house and doing his father's business, and that wind blows wherever it pleases.
The second disciple asked to be excused from the calling. Scholars tell us his answer was a cop-out. He asked to remain home until his aging parents had grown older and passed away. That could be five or ten years away; there was no urgency to his situation. This disciple was essentially declaring his family to be more important than God's purposes. For him, too, the gospel comes as hard news. You have to downgrade what is most important to you. Your family is a beautiful gift from God. But we should not prioritize it above God or turn it into an idol. Tribalism, co-dependent relationships, illicit sexual relationships, or unhealthy family alliances are all relationships diagnosed as unhealthy in God's house. When the self seeks someone other than Jesus to provide security, meaning, or comfort, that's a recipe for failure.
The hard calling of Jesus is to follow him without reservations. He teaches us not to trust in familiarity or old loves and commitments but to continually launch beyond our comforts and security systems. The Son of Man is constantly on the move. He is leading us beyond the boundaries we are familiar with and the lessons we've already learned. He takes us on missions to dangerous lands and to people who don't benefit us. He is constantly calling us out of the haze and emotionlessness of sin and into the fullness of love's calling and trust. The question he is asking today is, are you willing to pay any price? Are you willing to surrender whatever he asks and trust him?
Tags: trust, disciple, salvation, relationships, follower, costly, comfort
